Bette Bailly
Bette Bailly was almost one of a kind. In many of her college engineering classes, she was the only female. In 1967, she showed up at KNAB-AM in Burlington Colorado. Her background was engineering and on-air experience as an all night disc jockey at a struggling top-40 radio station in Great Falls, Montana.
She intended to work there only 30 days, helping to put the station on the air. Now, over 30 years later, she is still there, and now she owns the station and its FM sister which went on the air in 1980.
Bette has become a major voice of small market radio by in both the Colorado and National Broadcast Associations. She chairs their CBA board of Directors and also has served on NAB’s small market board. Bette has served on the Burlington Chamber of Commerce as a past president and secretary-treasurer. She held several key positions in the Rotary Club at the local and district level. She is currently the chairperson of the Morgan Community College Advisory Board and the Kit Carson County Fair Board.
Bette has also received the Athena Goddess Award in 1995, the Colorado Broadcasting Associations Citizen of the Year Award in 1996, and has received the Colorado Broadcasters Association’s prestigious Rex Howell Award for 2004.
Bette Bailly passed away in 2015.
Bob Butz
They called him Cowboy Butz back in 1947 when he was one of the voices heard on the brand new radio station in Boulder, KBOL. Bob actually launched his long and illustrious Colorado broadcasting career at another new station, KCRT in Trinidad, his home town. After graduating from Trinidad Junior College, Bob dropped the Cowboy moniker when he became News Director at KBOL. He served in that capacity several years, except for a two year army stint.
In 1953, he was hired by KLZ Radio to replace Carl Akers who had been groomed for the night TV anchor position when KLZ-TV, Channel 7 went on the air Nov. 1, 1953.
Within a week, Akers decided to return to radio. Bob began airing the mid-day news on Channel 7, a position he held for 19 years as well as Saturday and Sunday night telecasts over many of those years. He was also a major fixture on KLZ radio, doing morning newscasts during this same period. After Time-Life sold the KLZ properties in 1972, Bob was named news director for KLZ Radio, a position he held for four years, In 1971, he began work at Talking Books, narrating books and periodicals for the blind and physically handicapped, where he received a prestigious Alexander Scourby Award.
Bob was active in community affairs and over the years has devoted much of his time to Masonic endeavors, including Denver’s El Jebel Shrine.
Leon "Stormy" Rottman
Leon Stormy Rottman was not a weather forecaster by occupation. He was a Weathercaster by dedication. That’s what was written about the late Channel 9 weatherman when he received the Board of Governors Award Emmy from the Colorado Chapter of the National Television Arts and Sciences in 1990.
Stormy was called the Pied Piper by former colleague Bill Kuster, because people followed him and believed in his forecasts and his on-camera style. That style was honed by military service as a meteorologist and by his natural affinity to project a twinkle in his eye as he appeared on the home TV screen.
Stormy began his career as a meteorologist with the Air Force as a briefing officer during World War II in the Pacific.
During the Korean War, he had the chance to work part time for a local TV station while he was stationed at Lake Charles, Louisiana. Stormy was heard on Armed Forces Radio from Tokyo in the mid 1950’s. In 1957, he was transferred to the North American Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs where he worked at KRDO-TV in his spare time.
Another radio stint with the American Forces Network in Germany followed in the early 60’s. He joined KBTV-Channel 9 in Denver in 1969 and from there started a new career as talk show host for KRMA-Channel 6’s Senior Showcase.
Shortly before Stormy’s death in 1993, Rocky Mountain News Radio-TV columnist Dusty Saunders wrote these words. “Although Leon Rottman has a central-casting nickname for a Weathercaster, it really doesn’t fit his personality. He is much more “Sunny” than “Stormy”.
Bob Shriver
Bob Shriver was the first announcer on Denver television when KFEL-TV, Channel 2 went on the air in 1952. Over a 40 year span, Shriver spent 20 years on the air and 20 years in sales.
Following service in the navy, he enrolled in the broadcast and radio curriculum at the University of Denver. In 1948, he began announcing part time at KFEL Radio, the Mutual network affiliate. Following his graduation from DU, Bob became a full-time announcer at the station. Soon, in addition to his announcing duties, he became one of the first Denver on-air Television personalities on locally produced programs. Bob was a pioneer in the early years of production in Colorado broadcasting.
In 1955, he joined KOA Radio and Television, whose studios were in the NBC building on California Street in downtown Denver. He appeared on both Channel 4, and on KOA radio. Bob’s voice was heard on the 50,000 watt station broadcasting remotes of top big bands from the famous Trocadero Ballroom at Elitch Gardens.
In 1969, Bob joined the sales staff of KLZ-TV, Channel 7. He rounded out his 4 decades in the business by serving as regional sales representative for Pikes Peak Broadcasting stations in Colorado Springs and Grand Junction. He served 40 years with the Arvada Volunteer Fire Department.